The purpose of a converged personal network service (CPNS) environment is to allow a user terminal, which is capable of only performing short-range wireless communication but incapable of performing cellular communication with a mobile communication network, to perform short-range wireless communication with a mobile communication terminal, which functions as a gateway of a personal network (PN) service, thus using a data service which can be provided through a cellular communication network.
The user terminal, which is capable of only performing short-range wireless communication but incapable of performing cellular communication with a mobile communication network, is subjected to an initialization process to use the CPNS.
That is, the user terminal searches for a gateway, which will function as a gateway of a personal network (PN), to use the CPNS. Then, the gateway determines whether the CPNS is available to the user terminal based on terminal information from the user terminal. If it is determined that the CPNS is available, the gateway transmits an authentication message indicating that the CPNS is available to the user terminal.
The user terminal can use the data service only after the above initialization process has been performed.
However, the above-described conventional method has a disadvantage in that it requires a separate authentication process for each terminal when a user uses several terminals in the CPNS environment.